Anomalous Magnetic Properties of Rh$_13$ Clusters

Abstract

Electronic structures of 13-atom Rh clusters with three possible high-symmetry geometries are studied using the discrete-variational local-spin-density-functional method. The ground state is found to be the icosahedral structure, and a total magnetic moment of 15$μ_B$ is obtained for the cluster. This value is anomalously smaller than those for clusters with lower symmetries, but in agreement with recent experiments. The magnetic interactions between the central and surface atoms of the cluster are {\it not} fully ferromagnetic, and a small amount of antiferromagnetic interactions is found to be mixed in. An energy parameter is introduced to explain the anomalous magnetic properties, which is found to be also useful for judging whether some techniques can or must be used in the local-spin-density-functional calculations.